The Amazing Spider-Man

The franchise reboot is sweet, sensible and cute, but where's the wow factor?

W
e live in the age of “awesome”. Everything gets labelled awesome — except the
things that should be, like superhero films, pop music and sexual
intercourse. Today’s superhero films are, on the whole, average. They’re
okay. Fine. Watchable. Even, at times, enjoyable. But awesome, as in “to
inspire by reverential wonder” (OED)? No way. It’s 10 years since Tobey
Maguire first appeared as Spider-Man: can this remake (oops, I mean reboot)
match it in the awesome stakes?

The director Marc Webb, of (500) Days of Summer, tells the story of how a
supersmart high-school nerd, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), is bitten by a
spider and becomes a crime-fighting superhero. At the same time, he’s bitten
by another deadly bug: love. Her name is Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). Instead of
the Green Goblin for a villain, we get Dr Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), who
transforms himself into a giant green lizard. Webb